Sugar Evaluation - part 2

PART TWO: USER INTERFACE

Wimp in Office 2003

(Ribbon) Office 2007

Sugar OS

Linux command line (similar to DOS)

*REMEMBER TO CLICK ON IMAGES TO SEE IN FULL SIZE

Which user interface do you prefer from to least. Give reasons.

1. Wimp (Office 2003) - I like to use Wimp because it looks very simple, everything is not spreaded everything and everything is easy to find.

2. Ribbon (Office 2007) - Even though it looks good it is very confusing to use. To get use to it you will have to use it for a while until you are comfortable with it.

3. Linux Command Line (Similar to DOS) - It can be sometimes fun when you try this because you get away from the generic interfaces like Wimp. All you do in the command line is type stuff to do stuff.

4. Sugar OS - I hate the Sugar OS interface, it is confusing. Even though the programs have icons, they don't have a name under it, you have to hover your mouse pointer over it just to find out what it is.

Evaluation of Sugar

1) Rate each of the following out of 5:
Guest speaker: Rosemary about Timor Leste - 4/5
Guest speak: Joel about the xo - 5/5
Physics - 4/5
SVG icon and Linux command line - 5/5
Turtle Art - 3/5
Other activity evaluation - 5/5
Etoys - 3/5
Scratch - 5/5

2) Now write about
Three things that I have learnt was to use the Linux terminal on Sugar OS, how to make things do random things using scripts and I also learnt how to hack sugar.

Three things I enjoyed doing was to hacking sugar because It was fun typing and changing things around. I also enjoyed using scratch and using some sugar activities like physics because they were easy to use and fun to use because you can make many things with them.

Three things I didn't like was Etoys because it is very confusing to use. I also didn't like Turtle Art because I found it very boring to use and I also didn't like when Sugar kept freezing because of its bugs it has or had.

3) State which was the following with reasons:
The best thing I liked was hacking sugar because I like to change things around on my computer so I enjoyed that activity.

The worst was using Etoys because it is very hard to use.

The most interesting thing was Physics because you can make so many things with just one activity.

The most difficult was Etoys because it is hard to use because of all the confusing scripts it has.

4) XO

I think XO/OLPC is a good idea because many kids around the world are not educated and the XO/OLPC can help them with all the activity it offers. For example the kids could use the ebook reader and the XO will read the ebook for them.

TEACHER PLEASE REMARK!

Mr. Kerr can you please re-mark my tux paint blog.

Tux Paint - On Sugar OS

Today I used a program called Tux Paint, it is like paint on Microsoft Windows.

What you can do on Tux Paint is draw things, and you can also colour objects and do much much more. It is like paint and photoshop joined together.

The positives, it has many features from photoshop, you can blur, burn, smudge, and much more. For the negatives Tux Paint didn't have any, it is very fun to use, good to use and best of all it is very easy to use.

What I found interesting was that Tux Paint has ALOT of features.

What you will learn from this program is the basics of drawing. You draw, colour, erase. Just like drawing things on a real paper.

Here is a screenshot of the picture of MyBlog and I done.



I rate Tux Paint a 9/10. It is really fun and easy to use and the age it is aimed for is 5 and over

KingJamesFan

The Great Race!

For last couple of weeks my computing class used a program called Etoys on Sugar OS.

We got given some activities to do, my favourite activity is "The Great Race", which was the last activity I done.

Our aim was to race four cars and make sure they stayed on their own track. So we used Etoys, it lets you create/modify scripts to allow your objects to do certain things, like go forward, turn, bounce, etc.

So the script I used to move the cars were:
*Top half of picture is to start and the bottom is to stop the cars


These are the scripts the start and stop had to follow


and the script I used to reset the cars were:



and here is a picture of my track and cars



click picture for full size

I think that Etoys is pretty confusing to use, but I guess it's because you can do so many things with it. I had a great time making this race.

Replacing the Sugar SVG Icon

On Sugar I have the ability to change the icons of anything. The teacher gave us a task, it was to make our own svg picture and replace the Sugar-xo icon.


Here is a picture of the svg I have made. It is a mouse




After I made my SVG icon I successfully managed to replaced the Sugar-XO icon to my Mouse svg icon. My Sugar OS now looks like this.

Our next task was tricky, we had to make our svg icon change colour in Sugar. I managed to do that by changing the fill code to fill="&fill_color;" and the stroke to stroke="&stroke_color;".

Here is an example of my SVG icon in a new colour.

Physic Task - Keep It Up!

dude, displayname07 and I made a game on Physics on the Sugar OS. We called it Keep It Up!. The aim of the game is to make an any shaped object at 1.5cm starting from one of the 4 top columns, you then drop the object and try to get the bottom without touching/or atleast try not to touch the triangles. The object that touches the triangles the least wins. Players only have 4 tries.

Joel Stanley

Joel Stanley our guest speaker is a University Student who studies Electrical Engineering. He chose to study Electrical Engineering because he was at a tour at the University of Adelaide and the tour motivated him. Joel’s project was producing XO’s; he tested how much heat the XO can handle. The XO can take heat up to 60 degrees Celsius; it was tested in a pie oven/warmer. Joel also tested how much power the XO uses; he has tested each component in the XO to see what uses the most power. He tested over 40 parts in the XO.


He then explained to us what M.I.T (Massachusetts Institute Technology) is. At M.I.T there are a lot of smart people there. Joel then told us some guys from M.I.T started Guitar Hero, which is a well known game; they now make millions from it

Joel’s favourite operating system is Linux because he finds windows annoying and Linux is free open source software, Linux allows users to change the free software in Linux without being sued.

Joel took a weekend trip to Romania; he spoke to some people and explained to them what the XO is. Most of the computers in Romania run Windows, changing operating systems would cost too much.

Joel told us who the person who made the display for the XO is Mary Lou Jepsen. He also told us she was working on a project that would allow adverts to be projected onto objects. She really wanted to project adverts on the moon.



Joel then explained some more about the XO, the antennas are in the rubber clips on the side which lock the XO when it is closed.

He told us he stayed in America for 3 months, he said told us he didn’t think of it as a job, instead it was a fun thing. He then showed us a video of two kids fixing the XO, they disassembled it and fixed everything and then reassembled it. This proves any kid can fix the XO. He then showed us the XO’s connecting to each other, it allowed people with XO to connect and chat with each other, do activities together and do homework together.

I thought it was cool when Joel Stanley came in tell us what we wanted to know, I hope more guest speakers come in.

Sugar Activity

Today I used Physics on Sugar, It's an activity that allows you to make shapes and move them, you can make the shapes spin, fall, etc. I like it because you can make a game on it, I have made a game where you have to throw the ball into the bucket, first to five wins.

The activity is very fun, it is very fun when playing with friends, you'll use this activity every time your on sugar.

Guest Speakers

We were listening to guest speakers, they told us what East Timor is like

East Timor is an hour away from Darwin, East Timor has very nice tropical weather. The Port in East Timor is an important place for supplies to come in from other countries by boat. There is also the Australian Army and United Nation trying to keep the peace in East Timor. East Timor's just decided language is Portuguese, at the moment the locals speak tetun. The beaches in East Timor is usually packed. The Locals in East Timor called foreigners mallia.

The guest speakers met some missionaries from Brazil, they help with the language translation. One of the missionaries project is to try and help bring water down from the mountains to the village for suitable drinking water. The Education in East Timor is very undeveloped, kids will usually bring a book and pen to school, no lunch, etc. The lifestyle of East Timor is very challenging for both kids and foreigners, the families have to work very hard to keep their family going.

Most people in East Timor own a scooter for transport. The local supermarket is called LEADER, they sell furniture, food, mainly everything for a home. The XO computer has been introduced to the kids in East Timor, the XO helps kids with their learning, allows them to access the internet and much more. The country also has a classes setted up by people from other countries wanting to help the kids.




I thought it was great that the guest speakers came because I learnt new things about East Timor and XO.

Sugar Impressions

My first impression of Sugar is that the operating system is very fun to use, the games on it are very fun. I think the operating system is used for group activities. I played the Shape game on sugar with dude, gijoe619 and displayname07. Sugar had some really interesting and fun other activities, there is chatting, games, and other fun activities. I also noticed the loading of the applications, the loading of everything is very fast. The operating system can be used on normal computers and the Xo/olpc.